The Sennheiser Group is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of headphones, microphones and wireless transmission systems. Created in 1945, Sennheiser currently has 1,800 partners in forty countries and in 2008 recorded sales of $564M.

Sennheiser France began twenty years ago and is now the second largest subsidiary, just behind the United States. Sennheiser France boasts eighty employees, recorded sales of $67M and distributes close to 2,000 products, covering fifteen brands via a network comprising thousands of distributors.

Sennheiser France fosters loyalty by providing its network of 3,000 distributors with new services.

"The Convertigo mashup solution is perfectly adapted to our needs and we would not hesitate to recommend it." JACQUES COHEN, IS DIRECTOR, SENNHEISER FRANCE

Challenges

In a highly competitive market, it is important to stand out from the competition by offering new services to clients. Access to accurate prices, real time stock availability and order status tracking are just a few of the services that Sennheiser France aspired to provide to its 3,000 distributors via the web.“We decided to create a retailer’s site accessible via internet to enable retailers to access the product catalog and view the prices available to them,” explains Jacques Cohen, IS Director for Sennheiser France.

Sennheiser France applies a marketing policy with a sophisticated pricing system, notably with respect to discounts on reaching turnover goals, which requires real time calculation of orders entered. All of these capacities—and the data required to implement them—were already inherent in the ERP AS/400. Sennheiser therefore wanted to reuse this existing information in the eCommerce application. But, as with 70 % of the applications currently present in enterprise, no APIs* were integrated which made it impossible to access to this information. A static catalog also needed to be used in order to present the products from a commercial point of view (product features, photos, etc.).

Objectives:

To publish data from AS/400 system in real time, for the calculation of prices and availability. To provide the distributor with a catalog that is easily accessible, with multiple criteria and selections, photos and technical descriptions. To offer a user-friendly and attractive interface that projects the group’s brand image.To integrate these various applications (which were stored in heterogeneous systems) and to publish them on the web in a short period of time and for a reasonable cost.

*API: APPLICATION PROGRAM INTERFACE. A SET OF EXTERNAL COMMANDS THAT PROVIDES A WAY FOR ONE SOFTWARE APPLICATION TO ACCESS AND USE THE FUNCTIONS OF ANOTHER SOFTWARE APPLICATION.

Solution

Sennheiser France initially planned to develop a web site by creating interfaces with its ERP, but this solution proved very costly, and did not guarantee updated data in real time.

The company then turned to Convertigo, who offered its enterprise mashup solution, designed to retrieve not only data, but also the processes already present in the ERP without the need for APIs. Thanks to the Convertigo Mashup Sequencer service, orchestrator and Convertigo Legacy Integrator modules (which enable non-intrusive access to legacy applications), this solution placed a premium on exploiting existing information and meeting Sennheiser’s technical constraints. To optimize performance, the Convertigo solution retrieves data on prices and stocks using a simple query on the AS/400, which collects all the information required on a single screen. The data is then “mashed” with the information in the static product catalog and published on the web, integrating the look and feel of the institutional site. Implementation of this solution took place in just a few weeks, and building the mashup solution only took about twenty days, instead of the months initially planned for development.

Reasons for this choice:

• It was a simple technological solution that enabled integration of data in real time, with excellent performance for the user.
• It provided transparent integration that required no modifications to the ERP.
• It allowed for quick implementation and a controlled budget.

“Convertigo provided us with a simple solution that did not require any technical development of our AS/400, and which was easily integrated with the design of our web site.” JACQUES COHEN, IS DIRECTOR, SENNHEISER FRANCE

Results

“The distributors that use the application are very satisfied with the system and have made this clear to our sales and marketing team...Their feedback has enabled us to upgrade the system for the second version of the retailer site.” JACQUES COHEN, IS DIRECTOR, SENNHEISER FRANCE

Sennheiser France distributors were used to completing their orders by calling the sales administration department. The time saved by reducing the number of calls is part of the project’s return on investment. The application also provides the retailer site with a "trusted partner" follow-up feature, a specific system that allows distributors to obtain articles on loan. This used to require filling out forms and sending them by fax. But now that this service is online, distributors can access the stock on their own, and accelerate the process. All workflows implemented use Convertigo mashup technology, and enable reliable and regular automated retrieval of data and sales management processes in AS/400.Another important advantage: upgrade of the sale management platform does not jeopardize web publication, as the mashup will simply be reapplied to the new system.